While the Wang Family was holding their clan meeting, about five hundred meters away, in an unremarkable two-story building, a strange blue-black light flickered in the darkness.
At first, the flickering shadow looked like a skull. As it grew larger, its true form became clear — a pale human face.
That ghastly face was neither male nor female, and upon its pallid surface, countless blue-black maggots writhed and crawled, making the sight utterly revolting.
This being was one of the newly promoted Elders of the Holy Spirit Church (Sheng Ling Jiao) — Mask Douluo.
His Martial Soul was named Demon Maggot, a terrifying spirit that evolved only by devouring the souls of the living.
At that moment, Mask Douluo held in his hands a blood-soaked human head. With a savage motion, he cracked open the skull and began greedily slurping the brain matter within.
Drinking brain fluid — that was one of Mask Douluo's favorite pleasures. His personal record was draining the brains of a thousand people in a single day.
When he learned that the Holy Spirit Church's Pontiff Zhongli Wu planned to support a particular prince by eradicating the factions loyal to the others, Mask Douluo volunteered eagerly for the task.
His enthusiasm wasn't only for loyalty's sake — he had just broken through to the Titled Douluo realm and needed to consume the souls of powerful beings to stabilize his foundation.
For Evil Soul Masters, cultivation without slaughter and soul consumption was tediously slow — no faster than that of ordinary, mediocre-talent Soul Masters (like Tang Ya once was).
But if they killed and devoured soul and flesh alike, their progress could far outpace even geniuses born with innate full soul power.
Thus, once an Evil Soul Master experienced that intoxicating surge of rapid power, they could never again tolerate the slow, patient meditation of normal cultivation.
Seeing Mask Douluo's zeal, Zhongli Wu had simply handed him the assignment — the Wang Family of Mingdu.
The minimum goal: kill the Wang Family's patriarch Wang Yan, along with the First Elder Wang Lu, crippling the clan's power so that they could no longer support Second Prince Xu Tianyu.
Mask Douluo had accepted the order with delight.
First, he had his underlings disguise themselves as bandits and ambush the Wang Family's shipment of rare metals.
Then, he implanted parasitic maggots into the body of the Tenth Elder, using them for surveillance and control — before deliberately letting the man escape alive.
The purpose was simple: allow the elder to return and report what happened, provoking the Wang Family's strongest members to seek revenge.
Once they left the compound, Mask Douluo would strike — eliminating or controlling every one of them. Afterward, he would use those puppets to return and slaughter the entire Wang Family from within.
If, by chance, the Wang Family refused to take the bait, he planned to use the Tenth Elder's body to map the clan's defenses — learning the family's manpower distribution, the patrol schedules of the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Regiment stationed in Mingdu, and the intervals of their rounds.
After days of meticulous preparation, all his investigations were complete.
Then he would strike swiftly, cutting the knot with a single blade — slaying Wang Yan, the patriarch, along with the First Elder and several key figures before vanishing without a trace.
He had already scouted the area: the Wang Family's estate lay on the outskirts of Mingdu, not in the city's fortified center.
Even if the Imperial Dragon Regiment detected the battle's soul-power fluctuations, they would still need time to arrive.
To Mask Douluo, that was more than enough.
He might not have time to massacre the entire clan, but killing the patriarch and a few elders would fulfill Zhongli Wu's minimum command.
As for any later investigation, once he returned to the Holy Spirit Church, even if the Sun and Moon Emperor Xu Jing himself wanted him dead, he could do nothing.
Truly, Evil Soul Masters were mad — utterly fearless.
At that moment, Mask Douluo was using the maggots implanted in the Tenth Elder's body to monitor the happenings inside the Wang Family's meeting hall.
This was one of the special abilities of his Martial Soul, Demon Maggot — he could implant the worms into another living being for parasitic control or to consume the host's soul.
Though he wasn't the most formidable in direct combat, the versatility of his abilities made him extremely valuable to Zhongli Wu, who had personally nurtured him until he reached the Titled Douluo realm.
Mask Douluo tossed aside the now-drained head and let out a chilling, rasping laugh.
"Jie jie jie… The Wang Family really does have quite a few strong ones — two Soul Douluo, more than ten Soul Saints.
If I devour all their souls, not only will my foundation stabilize, but I might even reach Level 92."
His grotesque laughter echoed through the dim room, oozing malice.
He licked the brain matter from the corner of his lips, his eyes glinting with greed.
Through the psychic link with the maggots inside the Tenth Elder, he could clearly see and hear everything within the Wang Family's hall.
"Two Soul Douluo, ten-odd Soul Saints… tsk tsk, what a feast," he muttered.
As he chuckled, the worms on his own face squirmed along with the motion, making the scene even more hideous.
Soon, however, a flicker of puzzlement crossed his face.
"Strange… wasn't the Wang Family's patriarch supposed to be Wang Yan?
Then who's that boy sitting in the patriarch's seat?
Has the old man stepped down and passed the title to a youngster?"
Mask Douluo shrugged indifferently. He was supremely confident in his strength.
Although he had only recently advanced to Titled Douluo, the eerie nature of his Martial Soul made him superior to most peers of the same rank — unless the opponent possessed an exceptionally powerful Martial Soul or top-grade Spirit Bones.
Even then, Mask Douluo was certain he could retreat unscathed.
If he feared not even other Titled Douluo, why would he worry about a mere Wang Family?
In his eyes, the clan was nothing but a nest of ants. Were it not for the political risks of acting openly within the Sun and Moon capital, he would have crushed them long ago with a flick of his wrist.
Continuing to eavesdrop, he heard the Wang Family meeting drag on endlessly.
After a long while, it finally ended.
Mask Douluo stretched lazily and grumbled,
"Tch, what a bunch of cowards.
All that talking, and in the end, they decided to 'investigate carefully.'
Useless! Looks like I'll have to do all the work myself."
Time passed quickly. A week later, the night was moonless and heavy with cloud — a perfect night for killing and burning.
As dark clouds blotted out the moonlight, a black-robed figure appeared silently before the Wang Family estate.
Beneath the hood, the maggot-covered, grotesque face of Mask Douluo twisted into a nauseating grin.
He had spent an entire week preparing for this strike, choosing this precise moment when the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Regiment patrol was farthest from the Wang Family grounds.
He had exactly two minutes to act — two minutes in which he was completely safe and could guarantee escape without pursuit.
If he lingered beyond that, there was a chance he'd be intercepted by the imperial regiment.
But to him, killing Wang Yan and Wang Lu and a few elders would take less than one minute.
After all, he wasn't planning a frontal assault — this was to be an assassination.
If everything went smoothly, he could finish the job without even causing a ripple of soul-power disturbance.
Mask Douluo's grin widened as his voice rasped through the darkness:
Jie jie jie… Wang Family — tonight, your name will be erased from this world!